Well, in truth, it is the big companies we work for, own shares in, and buy goods from. Here are just two examples, plucked at.
News Corp., the media company run by Rupert Murdoch, according to its latest annual report, is the owner of companies such as News Cayman Ltd., based in the Cayman Islands, Newscorp Netherlands Antilles, Quazar Investments, based in Mauritius, and the cutely named Shining Profits Ltd., based in the British Virgin Islands.
In total, News Corp. owns more than 15 subsidiaries in the Cayman Islands, and more than 40 in the British Virgin Islands. Is it really necessary to have 40 subsidiaries in the Virgin Islands? Surely it's quite hard to find 40 people, never mind 40 businesses you would actually want to own.
Barclays in St. Lucia
Barclays Plc, one of Europe's biggest banks, operates branches in such places as Belize, the British Virgin Islands, Cayman, the Netherlands Antilles, Puerto Rico, the Turks & Caicos Islands, St. Lucia and St. Vincent, according to its corporate website. Again, what is it doing there? Is the St. Lucia economy so important hat Barclays feels unable to ignore it? This is a bank that has not yet troubled itself to establish bases in countries such Poland or Thailand or Chile.
But it feels St. Lucia is a good place for a bank. Why?
The point is not to single out those companies: they are no different from thousands of their peers. But their behavior poses two questions.
If there are tens of thousands of offshore companies, serviced by hundreds of offshore banks, all of which are closed to regulators and the police, does that not create an environment in which it is easy for terrorists to hide and launder their cash?
And does it not also create an environment in which it is impossible for investigators to track money down to its source? Among the billions held in offshore accounts, shuttling between the offshore subsidiaries of global companies and global banks, the money trail goes cold very soon.
Thomas Azzara
New Providence Estate Planners, Ltd.
(Consultants)
54 Sandyport Drive
P.O. Box CB 11552
Nassau, Bahamas
Fax/phone: (242) 327-7359
email: taxman@batelnet.bs
Click on or paste in your browsers.
Main website: http://www.bahamasbahamas.com/
Call me at 242-327-7359 with your questions. - 9AM to 5PM - New York time zone is best.
In the last 13 years, I've incorporated over 1,300 International Business Companies here in Nassau and in the UK "Overseas Territory of Anguilla. Both are no tax havens like the Cayman Islands and the British Virgin Islands.
Beginning in 2,001, we began forming IBCs out of the Crown Colony and no tax haven of Anguilla - 150 miles east of Puerto Rico.
We/I can and will provide you with bank contacts and application information for good banks in the following jurisdictions: Isle of Man (a major institution) + Anguilla (2 banks there - one used by the Anguilla government) + Bermuda (one of oldest banking institutions in offshore world).
EXTRA! EXTRA!
Enron had approximately 600 subsidiaries registered in Cayman. None of them were listed in the local telephone directory and it is likely that they comprised little more than pieces of paper in filing cabinets at the offices of the Cayman law firm of Hunter & Hunter, which provided registered agent services to Enron.
These entities, some of which allegedly were used for Enron's off-balance sheet activities, are at the heart of the investigation into the firm's collapse.
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EXTRA..EXTRA.. READ ALL ABUT IT....
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Want to know why and how the old monied Dupont Nemours and Roosevelt families were able to buy 4,000 acres of waterfront property on the island of Provindentcials in the tax free, crown colony (or "Overseas Territory") of the Turk and Caicos Islands for 1 cent an acre?
This 4,000 acre sale (now a marina and resort town - with an airport for jumbo jets (the $50,00,000 airport was donated by the UK government) went down in the 1970's - not the 1870's!?!?
Source: A Turks & Caicos Government 3 full page advertisement in Investor's Daily (1985).
Was this the most profitable real estate investment of the 20th century? A quarter acre lot in the gated community of Sandyport here in Nassau, Bahamas sells for approximately $260,000 today. Half acre canal lots in Lyford Cay sell for about one million dollars.
Do the math. On an initial investment of just $40, the 4,000 acre property might be worth almost 4 BILLION dollars today.
YOU BE THE JUDGE.... Are the use of the world's tax havens a blessing or a detriment? Before you answer, see some of the IRS's loopholes from our "Tax Code" - discovered for your viewing in Tax Havens of the World, and buried inside the tax law for the taxpayers! There's an very important loophole for the non-resident alien you should not overlook!
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